Museums & galleries
Glasgow has more than 20 museums and art galleries, most offering free admission.
Glasgow's iconic new Riverside Museum, a landmark building on the banks of the River Clyde and a fitting home for the city's world class transport collection. Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, Scotland's most popular free visitor attraction. Gallery of Modern Art, the most visited modern art gallery in Scotland. The Burrell Collection located in the woodland setting of Pollok Country Park, this award winning building comprises over 8000 objects. The Briggait, a beautiful Grade A listed building in Glasgow's medieval quarter transformed into a vibrant new home for visual art and cultural organisations. Centre for Contemporary Art is a hub for the local artistic community with contemporary art, artist residencies, independent film, dance and music. Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery is Scotland's oldest public museum and home to one of the largest collections outside the National Museums. St Mungo's Museum of Religious Art and Life is a haven of tranquillity in a bustling city. Across the road is the Provand's Lordship, Glasgow's oldest house. The Tenement House is a typical Victorian tenement flat of 1892, which retains many of its original fittings. Scotland Street School tells the story of education in Scotland over a hundred years, from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. Trongate 103 is a place to see art, make art and enjoy being creative in Glasgow. The Piping Museum is the only independent museum devoted solely to the great Highland bagpipe, the museum houses the most important collection of piping memorabilia in the world.
Riverside Museum
The Riverside Museum is a new development for the Glasgow Museum of Transport, completed on 20 June 2011, at Pointhouse Quay in the Glasgow Harbour regeneration district of Glasgow, Scotland. The next day it opened to the public On 18th May 2013, the museum was announced as the Winner of the 2013 European Museum of the Year Award,
Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum
The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. The building houses one of Europe's great civic art collections. Since its 200306 refurbishment, the museum has been the most popular free-to-enter visitor attraction in Scotland, and the most visited museum in the United Kingdom outwith London. The gallery is located on Argyle Street, in the West End of the city, on the banks of the River Kelvin (opposite the architecturally similar Kelvin Hall, which was built in matching style some years later, after the previous hall had been destroyed by fire). It is adjacent to Kelvingrove Park and is situated near the main campus of the University of Glasgow on Gilmorehill.
Other visitor attractions
Glasgow City Chambers Glasgow Cathedral Merchant City Glasgow Science Centre Riverside Museum University of Glasgow Botanic Gardens Glasgow School of Art FOUNDATION at The Lighthouse
Glasgow City Chambers
The City Chambers in Glasgow, Scotland has functioned as the headquarters of Glasgow City Council since 1996, and of preceding forms of municipal government in the city since 1889, located on the eastern side of the city's George Square. An eminent example of Victorian civic architecture, the building was constructed between 1882 and 1888 to a competition winning design by Glaswegian architect William Young (originally from the nearby town of Paisley). Inaugurated in August 1888 by Queen Victoria, the first council meeting was held within the chambers in October 1889. The building originally had an area of 5,016 square metres. In 1923, an extension to the east side of the building in John Street was opened and in 1984 Exchange House in George Street was completed, increasing the size of the City Chambers complex to some 14,000 square metres.
Glasgow Cathedral
Glasgow Cathedral, also called the High Kirk of Glasgow or St Kentigern's or St Mungo's Cathedral, is today a gathering of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow. The title cathedral is honorific and historic, dating from the period before the Scottish Reformation and its former status as the Roman Catholic mother church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the cathedra of the Archbishop of Glasgow (which is now in St. Andrew's Cathedral, the present mother church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow). The current congregation is part of the Church of Scotland's Presbytery of Glasgow. Glasgow Cathedral is located north of High Street and east of Cathedral Street, beside the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
Merchant City
The medieval Glasgow Cross was located on the road between High Street and Saltgait. Its modern replacement was built to the south-east of the original location to aid traffic. The town's tron was placed on the steeple of the town house in the 1550s. The Tron Steeple, as it became known, still stands in Glasgow Cross, one of the few remaining pre-Victorian buildings in Glasgow. The area now known as 'Merchant City' was developed from the 1750s onwards. Residences and warehouses of the wealthy merchant "tobacco lords" (who prospered in shipping and, amongst other things, tobacco, sugar and tea) were built in the area. The district west of the High Street formed the historic backbone of the city, the development of what is now known as with wide, straight streets, vistas, and squares, marked the beginning of a process of aspirational residential movement westwards that would continue throughout the 19th century and into the 20th with the development of Blythswood Hill, Hillhead and the West End of Glasgow.
